Memory
are unlikely to forget its purpose. For example, we are unlikely to forget that a chair is an object for sitting.
Moreover, when evaluating societal memory, we encounter a greater number of memories that are experientially ‘false’, for three reasons. Firstly, t he bias of written history which serves as a primary device for the affirmation of memory. This was even more the case in the ancient world, as, at written history’s nascent point , history did not claim balance to the same extent as modern history, as shown by Herodotus’ derision for Xerxes. 14 The tendency towards nostalgia (literally, the pain of returning home) is explained by the fact that the past is our ‘home’ in that it symbol izes that which is certain, whereas the present and future are tarnished by uncertainties. 15 This results in a tendency to mythologize the past. Many societies believe their zenith was around fifty years ago. 16 This explains why old collective stories, particularly in the classical world, existed as myth. The most important myth where we see nostalgia at work is the Golden Age. Hesiod describes a world of abundance without suffering or want. 17 It is implausible that anything resembling the Golden Age existed and, even if it did, given the disintegration of oral information, it is unlikely that it could have been transmitted for so long. We find this key prelapsarian myth in many societies from the Garden of Eden 18 to the Satya Yuga 19 in Hinduism. Thus, these myths serve the crucial function of evoking a vision of a better society while their disintegration serves to explains suffering in ancient societies. With collective storytelling, narratives are more likely to be transferred to more people if they are both sensational and simplified, thus the stories that last become detached from experience. The decay of nuance is particularly relevant in oral storytelling, as it is even harder to retain detail. 20 This mechanism reduces experiences to a distillation of their essential societal value. Indeed, it is highly likely that all nar ratives about a society’s past are to some degree experientially false . As such, our trust comes from what they symbolize about our beliefs about our past and identity. Thus, the issue is not whether social memory should be trusted, but whether one agrees with the values of society. In conclusion, despite the many challenges that ‘false’ memory can present, a nuanced view that recognize s memory’s function as a narrative of the essence of objects, people and ideas leads us to the conclusion that experientially ‘false’ memories are just as, if not more, useful than ‘true’ ones in the frameworks that build our understanding of the world. Thus, overall, we clearly can and must trust that these memories carry crucial meanings about our pasts, ourselves, and our communities.
14 Herodotus 1954 : 390-391. 15 Frankl 1946: 114. 16 For example, the American vision of a crime-free suburban innocence in the 1950s. 17 Hesiod 1988: 40 . 18 Anonymous 1611: ch. 2:4-3:24 . 19 Flood 1996: 112-113. 20 See: modern reminiscences about the Blitz Spirit.
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